Charleston Loan Exhibition

51 George Edwards (English, 1694–1773) Drawings of Carolina Parrot or Parakeet, Red-Winged Blackbird, Silver Pheasant, and Owl Probably London, England or Leydon, the Netherlands, ca. 1733 Watercolor, pencil and ink on laid paper Carolina Parrot or Parakeet, H. 10½ x W. 8¾ inches (inscribed upper left: 9 ); Red-winged Blackbird, H. 10¼ x W. 8¾ inches; Silver Pheasant, H. 11 x W. 8 ‡/* inches (inscribed upper left: I8 ); Owl, H. 10¼ x W. 8¾ inches (inscribed upper left: 8 ) Lent by Drayton Hall, a historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, NT 2009.13.2, NT 2009.15.4, NT 2009.15.7, NT 2009.13.5 John Drayton was active in the transatlantic intellectual community as a collector and supporter of works in natural history, as evidenced by his collection of forty-eight ornithological watercolors painted by George Edwards (1694–1773), the father of British ornithology. Rediscovered in 1969, these rare watercolors were originally part of a portfolio complete with a frontispiece marked with the name of John Drayton and the date 1733. Given their early date of acquisi- tion, the Drayton collection of watercolors may have been a gift from Edwards in return for continued financial support. Today, twenty-one of the watercolors survive as part of Drayton Hall’s collections. These watercolors were completed ten years before the publication of the first volume of Edwards’s A Natural History of Uncommon Birds of 1743 and are the oldest of their type to survive in North America. Indeed, one of the only comparable assemblages exists as part of Sir Hans Sloane’s collection in the British Library. Essential to the production of Edwards’s published works was monetary support gained through subscriptions to each of his volumes. Significantly, John Drayton was the only North American subscriber to Edwards’ first volume of A Natural History of Uncommon Birds of 1743. Seventeen years later, Drayton subscribed to Edwards’ Gleanings of Natural History , as did two additional Americans: botanist William Bartram and Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia. CH